


Zonja.jpeg

by spacerabbit (plushbun)



Category: UFO: A Day in the Life
Genre: Computer Programming, Computers, Cute Ending, Cutesy, Drawing, Emails, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship/Love, Geek Love, Geeky, M/M, Nerdiness, Nostalgia, Retro, Secret Crush, Textspeak, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27365728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plushbun/pseuds/spacerabbit
Summary: Nojima wanders into Zhongja's room once more for help with his videogame, only for Zhongja to have enough of him constantly bothering him while he's working. Frustrated, he gives something to Nojima to keep him off of his back from now on, something that causes more good than he expected.
Relationships: Nojima Taichi/Kaku Zhongja, Suite #201/Suite #103
Kudos: 2





	Zonja.jpeg

**Author's Note:**

> For once, something cute from me. I'm used to writing dark fiction, but for once I wanted to try writing something wholesome. This fandom was perfect to try this out in.
> 
> UFO: A Day in the Life is a yet another beautiful game I've fallen in love with lately. The same people who made moon rpg made this, which led me into seeing what it was about. You play as a funky little alien taking pictures of stuff to find your lost alien buddies in an apartment. It's as wonderfully wacky as it sounds. While the alien is the protagonist, the real stars of the show are the people who reside in the apartment you're exploring in. I didn't expect myself to grow so attached to the apartment residents, so here I am now writing about them already. They're much more complex than I thought they'd be..!
> 
> Interestingly enough, this game has no dialogue, so you're pretty much guessing what's happening between the residents of the apartment as you play. It's one of those games where you watch stuff happen most of the time. It's surprisingly fun to see how each resident is doing and what they decide to do at certain times of the day. I watched a complete playthrough of this on Youtube since unfortunately the game hasn't been translated yet to English, but I was still able to understand what was going on due to the lack of actual dialogue between residents. The most you'll hear is gibberish or little phrases like "ramen."
> 
> Concerning the fic, enter residents #201 and #103. These two have a pretty wacky relationship, and I aimed with this fic to expand upon it a bit more. I hope you enjoy how I've reimagined their only interaction in-game.
> 
> One thing to note before reading: This is set before Nojima has his office job, as he's currently unemployed in this fic. 
> 
> Thanks for reading the notes! I hope you enjoy. I have a couple extra notes at the end for once since this fic caused me an interesting hiccup...

Two thuds on a familiar turquoise door. 

The usual motions. 

The usual knocks.

… In reality, Taichi didn’t have to knock… but he did anyway. 

His “friend” so to speak never really reacted to them, but he still thought to be courteous. 

After waiting a moment, Taichi slowly pushed open the door that led into the space that was room #103, converted into a full on computer room by its owner.

Upon stepping into the room, all light from the outside world escaped as the door closed behind him, guiding him into the endlessly dark world that laid within, illuminated only by the numerous computer screens that were scattered across the area. 

Peering intently into the darkness, one could spot colorful sticky notes that littered the walls, with messy notes written onto them. The notes varied in the language they were written in, with most of the notes being primarily written in Mandarin. These notes danced in the wind that was emitted from an air conditioner that laid overhead, gently blowing a soft, cold breeze into the entire room. 

Stepping over a couple of empty cola cans that lay near the entrance, Taichi carefully walked over to where his person of interest was, making sure not to crash into anything in the process due to the room being barely lit.

_ Tck tck tck tck tck tck…! _

Keyboard  _ clacking. _

Zhongja ruthlessly typed away on his keyboard, his fingers moving almost a mile a minute while he was writing up code for yet another dastardly program. His eyes glued to the screen, he didn’t catch the fact Taichi had entered the room, instead mindlessly focused on the bright screen that shone into his constricted pupils. Sitting on a large, orange computer chair, his posture remained unchanged as he sat straight up, neglecting to move his seat in the slightest while he vigorously stuck the plastic keys.

Cautiously approaching his chair from behind, Taichi made sure not to surprise him by speaking to him before he could see him.

“Zhongja …” Taichi said softly, as he tried not to be too loud as to startle him.

After a few swift keystrokes, Zhongja finished the line of code he was writing, marking the end of his typing with a quick, stylish motion in the air. Finished, the man finally swiveled his chair to see Taichi, crossing his legs shortly after.

“...Yes?” Zhongja replied, a bit irritated. He didn’t like company, especially when it was during the time while he was working on code…

...Which was all the time. 

“Do you think you could help me with my game again…? Taichi asked.

It had become a routine where Taichi would often wander into Zhongja’s room for help with his videogames, as he often got stuck on levels only Zhongja would know how to deal with. While it used to be a rare occurrence, it was now a daily thing where Taichi would ask him for help as he got into progressively harder levels, leading him into asking for help a bit more often than he should. It didn’t help that Taichi didn’t have a job either, meaning most of his time was dedicated towards playing videogames.

“Your game? Again?! Seriously?! I helped you with this last night..!” Zhongja screeched, annoyed that Taichi was asking him for help for the _ fifth  _ time this week.

“I know, I know… B-but, you’re the only one who’s good at it, no one else knows this game the way you do!” Taichi argued. 

“Tch..!” Zhongja sneered, twirling his chair back to his computer screen. He began typing again, blatantly ignoring his plea and going forward with his coding.

“Ah…” Taichi sighed.

He pulled out his game system from his pocket for a second, with the small screen further lighting up the dark room the two resided in. 

LEVEL 5, the screen read. Two green pixel characters were suspended in motion, with white letters in bold reading PAUSE over the scene, obscuring the characters and the LEVEL 5 graphic. Taichi looked at the screen, pained over how much of a struggle the level was to complete. 

“I’d really appreciate the help..!” Taichi pleaded, hoping his friend would decide to help him even after his quick rejection. 

His plea was met by more disregard, however, as the sounds of loud typing was the only thing that filled the air.

…

...Suddenly, Zhongja stopped typing all at once, silently moving his hands down from the keyboard and letting out a loud sigh.

“Y’know what? Nojima, I’m going to do what I should have done  _ ages _ ago.” Zhongja rose from his computer chair, an extremely rare sight as he almost never left his seat.

Quickly walking over to the corner of his room, he approached an iron shelf filled with computers, old and new. Each shelf had a different variety of computers, from vintage, disheveled workstation computers to dusty, aged PC’s. Standing on his tiptoes, he reached on a high part of the shelf to grab a large, beige monitor, grunting as he struggled to pull it down from the shelf. He spent a considerable amount of time trying to get it down, straining as he kept trying to haul the behemoth off. 

“Do… you need help with that?” Taichi asked, watching as his friend wrestled with the weight of the computer. 

“M-maybe..!” Zhongja yelped in response, with most of his energy being drained by him trying to lift the monitor.

Eventually, he stopped in his attempt to take the computer off the shelf, panting as he collapsed on the floor afterwards to rest.

“Okay… M-maybe I _ do _ need help…” Zhongja muttered out, catching his breath in the process. He pushed up his glasses as they were near falling off due to the pressure he exerted in trying to get the computer to budge. 

“I can see that..!” Taichi replied, already reaching over onto the shelf to grab the computer.

Getting a firm grip on it, he lowered the computer from the shelf with ease, placing it firmly on the floor once he was done. A bunch of tangled, sticky wires had also come down with it, scattering over most of the floor. He noted how the computer wasn’t very heavy, questioning just how fit Zhongja was and if he got  _ any _ exercise at all. 

“There you go,” Taichi said, motioning his hands towards the system on the floor. Zhongja stared at it, eventually slowly rising from the ground. He had considerable difficulty _ even getting up _ from where he was resting, breathing heavily as he brought himself up. 

Without even thanking him for the help, Zhongja immediately bent down and started trying to lift the computer from the floor, straining once more with the massive system until he abruptly managed to lift it up in his arms.

Shocked, Taichi looked at him in amazement, surprised he suddenly had the strength to lift it up despite him struggling with it earlier.

Shifting his weight, Zhongja got a tighter grip on the computer and started walking towards the door, grunting for Taichi to open it up so he could leave his room. Taichi ran to the door, swiftly opening it up for him to step outside with the monster in hand.

Once outside, Zhongja marched to the staircase that led to the second floor of the apartment building, steadily going up the steps as he used all his strength to keep the computer balanced in his arms as he climbed. Taichi followed him closely, watching him strain even more than before as he lugged the contraption upwards. All the various wires connected to the system dragged on the ground and knocked against the steps as they were brought up together. 

“D-do you need help with that too?!” Taichi yelled, as Zhongja continuously kept making his way up.

He didn’t reply, as instead he grunted louder as a way to get Taichi to continue following him.

As soon as the two hit the second floor, Zhongja was exhausted, barely getting any words out as ran over to position himself outside of Taichi’s room.

“O-open… your door…!!” Zhongja howled, wanting him to open his door as fast as could so he could stop carrying the thing already.

“I got it!” Taichi yelled back, quickly running to open up his door for Zhongja to go inside.

Rushing inside, Zhongja set down the computer onto the table that lay in the center of Taichi’s room, placing it with a loud  _ THUD  _ due to him being out of strength. 

“Hahhh….” Zhongja breathed out, leaning over and placing his hands on his knees as he looked at the floor in exhaustion once he was done putting the computer down. 

Taichi looked inside his room for a moment before entering it, fascinated by the enormous computer that now took up almost his entire table.

“A… a computer..?” Taichi slowly walked up to the apparatus, looking at all the weird wires and buttons that were a part of the machine. He admittedly didn’t know much about computers, and was fascinated by the numerous slots and ridges on the surface of its tower. Extending out a hand, he touched the surface of it with a lone finger, noting how dusty it was as many small bits of grey dust accumulated on his fingertip. Wiping his hand promptly on his sweatpants, he questioned how old the computer was as he wondered when was the last time it was ever powered on.

“Yep..!” Zhongja said, finally catching his breath. 

After taking a couple more breaths to recover, Zhongja turned towards the titan on Taichi’s table, and cracked his knuckles. Approaching the computer, he placed his hand behind the monitor and pulled out the wires from before in a huge bundle, taking care to separate them individually until he found the plug that connected it to the wall. Taking the plug in hand, he dashed over to the lone outlet in Taichi’s room, hooking up the computer with power as he firmly inserted it into an empty slot. Running back to the computer, he smiled wide as it booted up, the screen lighting up with a warm, blue light that lit up his orange shades. Getting comfortable, Zhongja sat down on the floor on his knees in front of the computer, reaching behind the monitor once more to retrieve a faded beige keyboard and mouse. Placing the two bits of equipment on top of the table in front of him, he began to frantically type once more, setting up the system at an alarming pace. 

Enthralled, Taichi went over to sit next to Zhongja, sitting on his knees as well as he watched him type away on the mysterious machine. He didn’t have a single clue what he was doing, but he liked watching the colors on the screen change along with seeing how fast Zhongja could type. He also paid close attention to how he used the mouse, as he seamlessly let it slide around his table as he endlessly clicked around. 

“This thing is huge.” Taichi eventually commented, hoping he wasn’t interrupting Zhongja’s progress.

Through a flurry of typing, Zhongja replied, his voice being a bit loud to speak over the clacking the keyboard made as he typed. 

“Oh, it’s ancient!” He said, his fingers maneuvering the keyboard with no difficulty despite it being a much different, older keyboard than his own. 

“How old?” Taichi asked. He scratched his chin.

“1995.” Zhongja replied, laughing to himself a bit as he kept typing. 

“I got this ages ago. Figured it needed some use…” 

“Really?” Taichi looked down at the keyboard, observing how big the keys were.

“...Yeah.” Zhongja rapidly scrolled with the scroll wheel of the mouse, clicking generously as he was absorbed into fixing up the computer.

…

  
  


The two sat in silence for a bit after this, until Zhongja spontaneously stopped using the computer altogether once the screen began to flicker generously. After some quick flashes on-screen, the monitor finally displayed the set-up program. 

“...Alright, all good to go.” He said, backing away from the monitor. He motioned towards it with a hand.

“This is yours now.”

“M-m-mine?!” Taichi asked, shocked that he was suddenly giving him an entire computer.

“Yeah,  _ yours _ . It’s about time you get one of these.” Zhongja gave him a look and crossed his arms, waiting for Taichi to do something on it.

“So… you gonna use it?” 

“...Use it..?” Taichi spoke, confused on how to do so.

Zhongja groaned.

“...I’ll… I’ll show you.” He sat back up again towards the computer, clicking around until he brought up a screen with a clock. The monitor lit up blue, with two grey boxes accompanying the clock graphic on screen. 

“Enter the date and time.” Zhongja commanded, moving himself so that Taichi could sit in front of the computer instead.

Moving himself over, Taichi sat himself in front of the giant PC, intimidated by the whole setup. 

He froze.

“You use the mouse…” Zhongja muttered, pointing at the mouse that laid on top of the table.

He observed Taichi as he watched him hesitate to take hold of it, eventually getting the hang of how to grip it.

“Yeah, you got it.” Zhongja smiled, blushing a bit as he realized how cute it was to see Taichi fumble around with a computer. 

Taichi maneuvered the cursor around the screen, transfixed on how the white arrow danced around as he slid the mouse on the table. It felt like magic to Taichi, as he finally knew how it felt after seeing Zhongja use the mouse forever prior. 

“So… I just click here to enter it..?” Taichi asked, staring at the screen. 

“Yep. Type using that.” Zhongja pointed at the keyboard, leaning back once more again as Taichi placed his hands on the keys.

He soon realized how difficult using the keys was, as he poked at each number slowly as he tried to locate each one in the swath of letters and symbols that sat in front of him.

“How do you do this without looking down..?” Taichi commented, tirelessly searching the keyboard for the correct letter.

“Practice.” Zhongja replied, snickering. “Lots of it.” Again, he loved watching Taichi familiarize himself with the system, as there was a certain flavor of innocence to be found in the scene that he admired. 

“I’m going to have to do that..!” Taichi said, clicking a grey “OK” button once he had entered the correct date and time. 

A soft melody played from the faded speakers that were a part of the monitor, the notes filling the room with a beautiful ambience as the noise radiated through both of their ears. 

Zhongja grinned once more. 

“That’s my favorite…” He laid his chin in the palm of his right hand, watching Taichi’s computer screen with awe.

“It’s certainly pretty.” Taichi noted, moving the cursor around until he lifted his hand off the mouse.

“So… what now?” He asked, wondering what to do next.

“Eh, whatever you want, really.” Zhongja replied. “Try clicking on stuff.”

Taichi wiggled his cursor around until he got into a folder filled with programs, audibly gasping as he realized how much was on the system.

“There’s so much..!” He commented. “Where should I start..?”

“Mm, wherever you want. Like I said, just click stuff. Find out for yourself what each thing is.” Zhongja purposefully wanted him to discover things on his own, as he  _ really _ didn’t want to be helping him out every second.

...Besides, he also just loved watching him struggle only to get the hang of it eventually. It was adorable to witness Taichi making various sounds in response to whatever he had clicked on, and he felt absolutely giddy each time he watched him learn in real time how to do certain things, like double clicking to open files.

Adjusting himself on the floor to get more comfortable, he was almost lying down as he watched Taichi mess around on the computer, fascinated by his ability to quickly learn how the computer worked.

He never knew how cute his friend looked on the computer until now…

...

Eventually, Taichi stumbled across a program named Paint, and quickly clicked it to open it up as he was curious about what it was. 

“Oh, so  _ you’re an artist now _ ?” Zhongja taunted.

“Huh?” Taichi replied, confused by what he meant by it.

Zhongja sneered once more, eventually quitting the act in favor of helping Taichi.

“That’s the paint program. Try dragging your mouse around, you’ll draw a line.” Zhongja waved his finger in the air, making shapes with it as he pointed at the screen to simulate drawing lines.

“A line..?” Taichi struggled a bit, clicking around making tiny dots instead of lines. He didn’t understand that you had to hold the left click down.

  
“No, no let me show you…” Zhongja put down his hand and shifted himself forwards.

Rising from his lounging position, Zhongja sat up and got next to Taichi, taking the mouse from him to demonstrate how to draw a line.

“You hold it down, see?” He held the mouse firm as he made a couple lines on screen, attempting to connect the lines to make a star.

Once finished, he had something on screen that… resembled a star..? 

“What… what is that?” Taichi asked.

It looked like a mess of lines more than anything. 

“It’s… supposed to be a star…” Zhongja slouched over. “I was never really good at drawing with Paint.” He pushed up his glasses.

Taichi laughed. 

“Well, alright! Let me try, this time…” He took hold of the mouse from him and started to draw a circle, only for it to come out outrageously lumpy.

“There’s a tool for that on the side, you know.” Zhongja said, pointing at the sidebar.

“Really, tools?” Taichi clicked around and found the circle tool, immediately making various circles on the screen as soon as he had it applied. He smiled.

“Mm, This is neat!”

He made even more circles, covering the virtual canvas with endless loops. Notably, he made sure not to cover what Zhongja made, instead isolating it from the madness he was unleashing with the circle tool. He eventually began to add color, discovering the bucket tool and dropping endless color onto the hoops. As time went on, he kept using more tools, making the whole picture into a neon tangle of hues and sharp, bold lines and shapes. 

Zhongja watched in amazement, as while Taichi wasn’t exactly making a masterpiece, it was still stunning to see him go ballistic in Paint with every tool he could. 

After a while of rambunctious clicking, Taichi paused and looked back at Zhongja.

“...How do I save this?” He asked. The scattered colors on screen reflected onto his face as the tones touched his freckled cheeks. 

Zhongja was floored seeing Taichi like this, as the colors cast from the computer coupled with how excited Taichi was to be using it filled his heart with a warm feeling. He genuinely loved seeing him have fun with the system, and wanted to stay forever just watching him explore it.

There was again a rare sense of innocence to be found in the situation, and he was enamoured by the energy that charged him everytime he looked over to watch Taichi.

He stared back at him instead of responding, fawning over how the shades complimented his dotted face.

...He wished he could touch them. He wished he could sit right next to him. He wished he could lie on his shoulder as he made a complete mess on the screen with every tool imaginable. He wished he could hold the computer mouse with him, letting his hand cover Taichi’s as he moved it around to click on the tiny icons that littered the screen. 

Oh, did he wish…

...

The monitor flickered on Taichi’s face, his face looking even more confused as he waited forever for Zhongja to say something in his trance. 

“Zhongja ..? H-how do I save..? Taichi asked again, hoping his creation wouldn’t get lost.

Snapping out of it, Zhongja rose once more, and directed him to the File button that laid near the top left of the screen.

“Click that, and then hit Save. You have to type in a name for it.” 

“A name?” Taichi hesitated. “I have to name this?”

“Yep, each file has a name.” Zhongja snapped his fingers. 

“Hm. I’m not sure what to name this…” Taichi admitted, staring at the screen while it flickered.

“Name it anything, really. It doesn’t matter. You can even just type in one letter and save it as that.”

“One letter? Mm, no… I want it to have some sort of name…” Taichi frowned at the screen, thinking.

Eventually, he set his fingers on the keyboard, set to poke the keys once more to input letters.

“...Can I just name it after you?” He asked, looking down at the keys intently to begin typing.

“Pfft, sure.” Zhongja replied, surprised.

On the inside however, he was  _ weak. _ He couldn’t believe he chose to name the file after him. 

Taichi stabbed the keys slowly, looking up after each letter inputted to see if he was typing it correctly.

The screen flickered once more, with Taichi’s typing resulting in the file name to show up steadily letter by letter. 

z

zo

zon

zonj

zonja.

  
  
  


“Oops, I messed up on some of the letters…” Taichi said, disappointed. 

“You can use the backspace to fix it,” Zhongja said, leaning over to point out the Backspace key on the keyboard,

“Oh..! I didn’t see that… Eh, I’ll leave it like this.” Taichi clicked Save, with the file appearing on his desktop immediately after.

“Oh cool! So it just goes there.” 

“Easy access.” Zhongja commented.

“I like that.”

The two stared at the screen together for a moment, both looking at the funky little file named “zonja” on the lone, turquoise blue desktop. 

“Well, that was fun.” Taichi said aloud, resting his hands in his lap. He looked at Zhongja once more, smiling directly at him this time. 

Flustered, Zhongja stared back and tried to smile, instead giving him a wonky grin in response.   
  


“Y-yeah, the paint program is pretty fun…” He scratched his head for a second, thinking desperately on what to say next so he wouldn’t look awkward.

In a sudden fit of realization, he snapped his fingers and regained his composure.

“Oh! I just remembered, I’m giving you this for a reason…”

Taking control of the computer again, he nudged Taichi aside to place his hands on the mouse and keyboard, whizzing the mouse around to locate the email program.

Once inside the program, Zhongja let Taichi take control of the computer again, and started to stand up from where he was sitting. 

“Hm?” Taichi looked at him as he rose, and soon saw him searching around his room.

“You got some paper and pencil?” Zhongja asked, whilst looking around his room for the items. He searched underneath the table, only to find empty cans of soda instead. 

“Oh, yeah I have some. Look in the drawer under the TV.” He pointed at the yellow drawer that held up his small CRT TV, specifically pointing at the second drawer from the top.

Zhongja darted towards the drawer and rummaged through it, pulling out a chewed pencil and a worn piece of yellow notebook paper. Ignoring the brutally chewed pencil, he began to frantically look around for a hard surface to write on since the computer almost took up Taichi’s entire table. Finding a book from the bookcase that resided behind Taichi’s bed, he began to quickly scrawl something on the yellow piece of paper he found. 

Taichi watched him, confused on why he needed to write something down. The computer screen shined in his face once more, and he turned to stare blankly at the screen while he waited.

After a couple moments, Zhongja ripped off the piece he had written on, and handed it to Taichi.

“You’ll need this.” 

“What is… this?” Taichi asked, not grabbing the slip of paper at first.

Zhongja pointed at the screen.

“I put you onto the screen where you can set up an email. You can send messages using that.”

“What I just wrote down…” Zhongja hesitated for a moment, and licked his lips.

“...I-is my email address.” He stuttered, nervous about Taichi’s response as his hand was still extended with the slip of paper.

“Email address..? Okay, thank you.” Taichi finally took the slip of paper, looking at it after.

“Your handwriting is neat..! English isn’t your first language either, is it?”

“Uh, no… It isn’t, you’re right..!” Zhongja beamed, overjoyed over how he noticed how neat his handwriting was.

In reality, he had only written it neat just for him. His usual notes were barely legible. 

Placing the piece of paper with the address onto his lap, Taichi clicked around the set-up screen, in the process of making his own email to use. He stopped fairly quickly however, to turn to Zhongja once more to talk to him.

“Y’know, Zhongja, I’m really thankful you gave me this… I’m starting work soon, and they wanted me to know how to use one of these things. I was going to wing it, but with this it doesn’t seem I’ll have to anymore.” Taichi was pleased, looking at him as he grinned.

“Oh, really..?” Zhongja was taken aback by the news.

“Yeah! I bet they wanted me to learn how to use this whole email thing too. Seems important.”

Taichi replied, looking back at the monitor. He began to click around the screen again, going back to set up his email.

“Good thing I gave this to you then…” Zhongja paused.

“... Also, I… really just gave this to you so you didn’t have to keep going into my room to bug me about your game…” Zhongja crossed his arms, pretending to be bothered. In truth, he was ecstatic the computer was working out so well for him, going as far as helping him for his upcoming job.

“Mmn, really?” Taichi responded. 

“Y-yeah. You can just email me instead now, if you need help. I’m always on the computer, so…”

“I can do that..?” Taichi looked amused.

“Yeah, the… the address I gave you. Once you’ve set up your account, send an email to that address. It’s me. I’ll get it. We can talk through there.”

“Neat!” Taichi was still clicking through the set-up windows, taking his time with each step.

Zhongja watched him for a while, and eventually noticed the orange clock on top of the bookshelf behind Taichi’s bed. 

5:50pm, it read.

Zhongja lit up, realizing he had to get back to his own computer to make sure his script ran successfully when it came to his hacking misadventures. 6 o’ clock was a vulnerable time, and everyday he had tried at this time to do something particularly sinister...

“Shit. I have to be going, I’ll see you Nojima. Just email me, okay? I’ll read it later.” Zhongja patted Taichi’s back for a moment and then immediately darted out of his room, hastily going down the apartment steps and back into the mysterious room that was room #103. The door shut with a magnificent thud that was heard even from the second floor. 

Taichi barely had a chance to react, instead watching his friend leave as the blue light from the screen emitted once more into his face. 

“Oh, uh… I’ll see you Zhongja…” Taichi said, sighing afterward.

Finishing up the set up process for the email program, Taichi brought up the piece of paper Zhongja had given him earlier, observing each letter he had written and carefully typing each one in. 

“I think this is right…” Taichi said to himself, cautiously clicking around the screen.

“I guess I’ll write something now.”

_ Tck...tck...tck....tck… _

“Mm.”

…

With only a few more clicks, Taichi was almost done with his email. All he had to do now was find out a way to send it.

Navigating around the screen for a bit, he finally found the send button, clicking it as soon as he found it. 

…

_ Ding! _

A bright letter graphic lit up Zhongja’s screen, interrupting what he was working on.

“Oh dammit, what is it-” His complaint was cut off as soon as he realized it was Taichi who had sent the email.

“...Oh? Already?” Zhongja clicked to read the message.

From: Nojima Taichi (nojimataichi023@lettersoft.com)

Date: Tuesday, June 24, 20XX 6:33PM

To: Kaku Zhongja (windowzmasterz@typetight.com)

Cc:

Subject: email 

hi im tryin g to type on this thing but it s still kinda hard . im getting the hang of it though

her e is the email lik you said you wanted. I hope this sendds : )

I made a smile face : ) i saw you make it once when i loked over your shouldr one day

It s cool : )

Also ps here is what i made today . i found out you can attch stuff to the email 

i t was a paperclip icon i clikked

bye now 

Attachment: zonja.jpeg

Staring at the email, Zhongja was absolutely astounded by it. He loved all the spelling errors Taichi made and how he apparently picked up on how to make a smiley face from him somehow. 

...He paid more attention to him than he thought.

Stunned, Zhongja hovered his fingers over the keyboard, thinking about what to send back. It was only mere moments later when he started attacking the keyboard again to write a quick message.

With a swift click, he hit the send button, and went back to his devious coding. 

…

_ Ding! _

“Hm?”

Taichi got up from his bed to see his computer, seeing that he had a reply back from Zhongja.

Taking a hold of the mouse, he hovered over the notification and clicked it. 

From: Kaku Zhongja (windowzmasterz@typetight.com)

Date: Tuesday, June 24, 20XX 6:41PM

To: Nojima Taichi (nojimataichi023@lettersoft.com)

Cc:

Subject: ---

Im glad u learned how to do a smiley haha. u can also write it like this :-)

Or like this  ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ but idk if thatll show up in ur browser ur computer is old lmao. its pretty complex. Maybe ill upgrade u someday but for now let me know if it works out. it seems like it is already lol.

If u draw anything else in paint show me okay. ur pretty good at drawing :-o thnx for sending what u made over i didnt expect that.

remember to msg me if u need help with ur game…….. So u dont have to walk over here barefoot every time lol. how do u even do that. nojima u are something. 

i have to go now im working on important things. ill see u

  * WIN DOW Z -



Once he finished reading the email, Taichi gave a small smile. 

He clicked to close the program, and opened up Paint instead. 

Set on making something he could send again to  Zhongja , the man started scribbling on the virtual canvas once more, hoping to make another creation that his friend would appreciate…

...

Filename: thankyouzhongja.jpeg

_ … click! _

…

Sent.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Even after Taichi got ahold of the computer, he mostly used it to draw nonsensical things to send to Zhongja. He never really actually emailed him for help, as he still preferred to waltz into his room instead as he enjoyed his company.  
> During quarantine, I bet Taichi is using his computer a whole lot more now..!
> 
> One last little tidbit about this fic: As far as I know, I think I'm the only English speaking person in the fandom as of now. Along with the lack of an English translation, there was some trouble when it came to writing one of the characters names in English. #103's name in particular caused me and my friends some problems when it came to how to write it out, as we were unsure whether to go with the romaji or go with a name that was more accurate when it came to his ethnicity. Written out, his original name is Kaku Chonja, but considering he's Taiwanese, his name didn't quite make sense as it wasn't a typical Taiwanese name, being moreso Japanese. After consulting some friends who knew Japanese and Chinese, I settled on writing his name as Kaku Zhongja as it was felt that it was more in line with his ethnicity. If we ever see an official translation someday, I'd love to see what name they'd use for him since I struggled quite a bit with it..! It's especially intimidating to be the first to define the English canon as well, and I hope the name works despite it deviating from canon a bit.


End file.
